Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What's wrong with the World's Finest Combat Handgun?

Funny thing Jorge, 3 of the guys on my shift carried series 80 Colts. They purchased them brand new around 1980. Those guns would rattle slightly when shook in a twisting/side-to-side motion. Hardly the tight tolerances the manufacturers are producing now.

The main thing that needs to be tight for 1911 accuracy is the lock up of the barrel/slide/bushing, not so much the slide to frame.

The Glock 19 fits my hand well, and it has always struck me as one of those designs that just has "it", a remarkable combination of high-capacity, reliability, light weight, corrosion resistance and compact design. Maybe the penultimate Glock.

I recall too Chuck Taylors 100,000 round no-maintenance/maximum abuse torture test of this same model. IIRC he couldn't break it.

But...

Hard to warm up to a design where the holster is the safety, otherwise how is a Glock with a loaded chamber any different that a single action auto carried safety-off?

Ya, I know about that odd little pivoting mechanical block on the face of the trigger.

No problems I guess when the Glock is carried in a sufficient holster, but what about when its stowed in a pocket or some such? ( met a guy who commonly carried his bone stock baby Glock loose in his front pants pocket )

The "staple gun trigger" is an apt description , I had the 8lb trigger springs put on mine trying to make it more like a revolver trigger (given the fact there are no safeties on the gun as most people understand the word). Now it feels even MORE like a staple gun.

As to reliability, no problem. But recently I was disconcerted to note the front sight had fallen off of mine, perhaps from a fall in the safe. I was given to understand that losing the front sight this way is a not uncommon phenomenon on Glocks.

Birdwatcher

You compare the Glock to a revolver more than once.

Where is the safety on a revolver?

Nope only once.

With respect to triggers, you must know the difference between double and single action triggers and the amount and distance of force required to depress them. If you do not, further expounding on my part will be hopeless.

The 5.5 trigger pull on a stock "safe action" () Glock trigger does not differ much from the single-action trigger of the usually accepted 'World's Finest Combat Handgun', other than by being much more vague and having a tad more travel.

This precisely why Glock holsters fit the trigger guard so closely, the holster IS the safety. This is the only handgun design I know of where this is true.

Meanwhile I wish you would explain exactly how a loaded Glock differs in any practical sense from a cocked and loaded 1911 without a working safety.

The flying-off front site issue appears to be a frequent problem too.

Just answer the points raised if you would, I got absolutely no interest in an internet peeing match.

Birdwatcher

The hammer.

Uh...yeah, I know the difference.



With respect to your bolded �usually�, it seems outside of this board that may differ among men who use them on a professional basis.


You can�t hang the edge of the trigger or the tip on a Glock and cause it to discharge. With the 1911 you can which is precisely why it has other safeties. And you're technically wrong about the holsters. Many 1911 holster have a thumb-break strap that goes across the back of the pistol and rests between the pistol and the hammer falling.


Not if you use red lock-tite, or have a gunsmith machine a dove-tail slot on the front to match the one on the back. The red lock-tite poses no problems if you want to remove the sight. Just apply a soldering iron to the screw head and it will quickly reach 300 degrees causing the red lock-tite to release.

For the record, I've fired around 15,000 rounds of full-power 10mm ammunition out of my Glock 20 and never had the front sight "fly" anywhere; it remained on the end of my pistol, right where it is supposed to be.

How is the front sight attached that it is prone to fly off?

It is secured by a small screw from the underside. A simple application of lock-tite to the screw will prevent any problems.

What's to stop someone unfamiliar with firearms from securing your revolver, point it at you at spitting distance, and start pulling the trigger?

The hammer?

Really? Must not have got around much yet....



WHAT!!! Are you seriously suggesting that if only Jonathan Browning woulda thought to put a little spring-loaded pivoting doohickey in the middle of the trigger of the 1911 he coulda left off the safeties? And someone with a 1911 design could do the same to their pistol?

Odd that particular modification ain't caught on yet

But you do concede my point by not contesting the obvious; that on the Glock the holster IS the safety.

And on them 1911 holsters with the thumb break strap? I would guess the fact that they are designed to go over the back of the slide is because the 1911 was designed to be carried cocked and locked, and indeed when it IS cocked there is nowhere else as convenient to run a thumb strap over.

Any additional security obtained by the quite incidental blocking of the hammer was just gravy.

Birdwatcher

hmm this thread was worthwhile,


suppose I better back out the screw that holds in the front sight on Mom's 22 and put some red loctite upon it.

wasn't aware of that potential problem thankee gents

in turn (I hope) Birdy if you look up the clipdraw website, I believe they also sell a little plastic doohickey that goes into the trigger guard of the Glock thereby blockin the depression of said trigger.


it's easily popped out with the finger while presenting the weapon on target, thereby eliminating the need to use a holster as a safety device for the Glock. Well at least until you're done shooting, the little bastid ain't so easy to find again. Don't ask me how I know this.

if I buy another I'm going to attach to the trigger guard with a piece of twine, or better yet baling wire and some duct tape, that oughta hold it i'm thinking!

Well hey AK, Sorta like the whole Liberal/Conservative press bias thing, I can imagine the fallout if any OTHER pistol design needed a little add-in plastic piece to be placed in front of the trigger to block it.

I've seen and handled those little doohickeys, and it seemed to me that if one was worried about objects depressing the trigger, the same amount of force could also knock out that insert. Indeed, in the confines of a pocket or loose holster that little plastic thing wedged crosswise might actually be the thing that presses the trigger (let alone baling twine ).

Unlikely? Hey, in the literally hundreds and hundreds of hours of carrying that concealed carry means for almost everyone, there's time for all sorts of long-odds scenarios to play out.

But.... the fact that the insert is even marketable means that recognition of the no-safety problem is widespread.

As for that little threaded front sight pin, if it is prone to back out, Glock should of course have adressed the problem in the first place, loc-titing it at the factory if need be.

Birdwatcher

You can�t hang the edge of the trigger or the tip on a Glock and cause it to discharge.

Sure you can. I walked my G23 into Glock HQ in Smyrna, GA a few years ago for that very problem. The "safety" was hanging up in the trigger just enough that you could pull the trigger without touching the "safety". Glock fixed it on the spot, even though it was years out of warranty, but I got the feeling it was not something the tech had never seen before.

I put a siderlock on my G23 and it was the best modification I have ever made to any firearm, ever.

Ummm...Nothing?

If I screw up that badly I deserve to get shot. If I considered that possibility I'd carry something less lethal, like maybe a rolled up newspaper.

Anybody that even suggests the Glock is even in the same universe as a Colt 1911 is delusional. But that's just an opinion, take it for what it's worth. jore

Glocks just don't fit my hand well either. Much better with Kahr or the S&W M&P models. Just the way I hold 'em, I guess

I agree with you. But I've also noticed that the world is full of delusional people (maybe just half full).

So, what the heck is a Siderlock? Google informs me its a very slick lookin' trigger safety. Great tip, Foxbat.

Siderlock

As Mackay pointed out on another thread, he keeps 5-shot revolvers stashed around the house. Why would a professional with expertise in handguns carrying many more rounds not stash 1911s or Glocks at strategic points? Because he isn't the only one there; his wife is there, and her level of training limits her to the 5-shot revolver. Pick it up and start pulling the trigger. I carry a Glock where I can for the same reason; I consider it a 15 round revolver. My wife, an ex-LEO, can shoot a revolver, and I have worked with her on malfunction drills on my Glock. I have two Glock 20s here if we need them.

Birdie,

I didn't concede anything about the holster being the safety on a Glock. That's ridiculous. All holsters that are meant for carry cover the trigger and trigger guard. Additionally, the pistol fits in the holster securely (Unless the holster is old, damaged, worn out or cheap).